cpadmin@publicbroadcasting.netNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Jeff Cohen is a proud New Orleans native who now calls New England home. Or at least his second home.He startedin newspapers in 2001 and joined WNPR in 2010, where he is a reporter and an occasional fill-in host for All Things Considered.In addition to covering state and Hartford city politics, Jeff covered the December 2012 Newtown shootings and the stories that followed. Much of that work was featured on NPR. Also in 2012, Jeff was selected by NPR and Kaiser Health News for their joint Health Care In The States project. That work resulted in several national stories, including ones on the Affordable Care Act and medical education.NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Jeff CohenTue, 26 Jul 2016 08:07:11 +0000Jeff Cohenhttp://whqr.org
Jeff CohenThough it's his job to enforce the law, Thomas Wydra — police chief of Hamden, Conn. — is not so sure about the laws on defective equipment."You may have something hanging from your rearview mirror. That's technically a violation," Wydra says. "You have an attachment on your license plate. That's technically a violation.""It's a legal reason to stop the vehicle," he continues, "even though, in the officer's mind, that's not the most important reason why they're stopping the car."Wydra says officers can use these stops to look for things like guns and drugs. But if an officer finds one illegal gun in 20 stops, is that effective?"I just don't know," Wydra says. "And I think that's part of the debate here on this topic and, really, in the country. Are these stops worth it?"There's also another question: Are they fair?As part of a recent state effort to collect and analyze traffic stop data, Hamden's department was singled out for stopping minority drivers at disproportionately higherTo Reduce Bias, Some Police Departments Are Rethinking Traffic Stopshttp://whqr.org/post/some-police-departments-are-rethinking-traffic-stops-reduce-bias
98456 as http://whqr.orgMon, 25 Jul 2016 20:17:00 +0000To Reduce Bias, Some Police Departments Are Rethinking Traffic StopsJeff CohenAfter the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., advocates for children in the state put a renewed focus on special education and children who need help.One challenge? Getting parents and school districts to agree on what to do.At a house in West Hartford, a young man and his grandfather are watching movies. First, it's The Love Bug. Now, it's Aliens."There's a lot of action scenes in it," says the young man. He's still a teenager, actually, a big 19-year-old who loves comic books and martial arts.His mother is Carol. She doesn't want to identify her son because she fears going public with his mental health issues could cause him harm. So we're not using her last name, either.Carol says her son craved social interaction ever since he was young, but he struggled with it. Then, in high school, he started to change. He was getting bullied. He became withdrawn and paranoid. His grades dropped."And when I went in and asked him, he was getting ready for school, I said, 'What's going on?How Best To Teach A Troubled Teen? The Question Can Get Stuck In Courthttp://whqr.org/post/conn-mother-presses-school-give-her-troubled-son-personalized-help
80174 as http://whqr.orgSun, 20 Sep 2015 21:07:00 +0000How Best To Teach A Troubled Teen? The Question Can Get Stuck In CourtJeff CohenHartford, Conn., Bets On Baseball To Revive Ailing Economyhttp://whqr.org/post/hartford-conn-bets-baseball-revive-ailing-economy
74710 as http://whqr.orgFri, 19 Jun 2015 21:01:00 +0000Hartford, Conn., Bets On Baseball To Revive Ailing EconomyJeff CohenIt's been two years since a gunman killed his mother at home and then opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 first-graders, six educators and himself. People in Connecticut are still hashing out just how parents and educators should handle children like Adam Lanza.A team of doctors, lawyers, educators and social workers from Connecticut's Office of the Child Advocate issued a report a few weeks ago, and while it says that Lanza is the only one responsible for what he did when he was 20 years old, it also says that there were warning signs and missed opportunities throughout his life.One big concern was a lack of training, knowledge, and expertise. Take Nancy Lanza – Adam Lanza's mother."Her instinctive course that she set was to get through the day," says Sarah Eagan, the state's child advocate and one of the report's authors. "And you get through the day by managing the day.""And, in some ways, that's a natural instinct," Eagan adds. "She's the mother of a son whoTwo Years Later, Still Learning From Sandy Hookhttp://whqr.org/post/two-years-later-still-learning-sandy-hook
65266 as http://whqr.orgSun, 14 Dec 2014 22:06:00 +0000Two Years Later, Still Learning From Sandy HookJeff CohenDr. Jack Ross is used to seeing potentially lethal viruses, and he is used to putting patients into isolation. Still, Ebola is different."I think, for any hospital today, Ebola represents one step higher than anything else, if we had to do it," says Ross, who directs infection control for Hartford Healthcare's five hospitals in Connecticut.On a tour of Hartford Hospital, Ross explains how his Ebola control plan would affect various parts of the facility — from the emergency room, to the intensive care unit, to the floors of rooms where patients stay."This would be an area that we would close off with plastic sheeting," Ross says. "Right here, we'd have a security officer, because you want to restrict visitors. You want to have a log of who goes in, who goes out."In Connecticut, the idea of taking care of an Ebola patient is still just theoretical; one of the reasons that public health officials are confident that American hospitals could contain an outbreak in the U.S. is becauseOne U.S. Hospital's Strategy For Stopping Ebola's Advancehttp://whqr.org/post/one-us-hospitals-strategy-stopping-ebolas-advance
62083 as http://whqr.orgWed, 08 Oct 2014 07:17:00 +0000One U.S. Hospital's Strategy For Stopping Ebola's AdvanceJeff CohenKevin Counihan, the CEO of Access Health CT, is walking through the 15th floor of a downtown Hartford office building that houses Connecticut's health insurance marketplace. He passes the legal department, the IT folks and the consultants, then stops in front of three large, wall-mounted computer screens."These are showing in real time, activity on our website. So, for example, right now you're looking at the number of concurrent users on the site," Counihan says. "So you can see that there are 212 people in the process of applying for insurance on the site."The monitors and technology are just a part of what his agency is doing right. Connecticut is widely seen as one of the states that is succeeding with the Affordable Care Act. The state's website works well, and it has already exceeded its first-year enrollment goals. Other states have noticed."We were approached by several states who called us and said, 'Would you have any interest in franchising your exchange to us as a state?'Connecticut Looks To Sell Its Obamacare Exchange To Other Stateshttp://whqr.org/post/connecticut-looks-sell-its-obamacare-exchange-other-states
51156 as http://whqr.orgFri, 28 Feb 2014 08:31:00 +0000Connecticut Looks To Sell Its Obamacare Exchange To Other StatesJeff CohenTranscript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: It appears thousands of Connecticut residents may have failed to comply with that state's new gun registration law. The sale of guns categorized by the state as assault weapons were banned after Newtown. Connecticut also created a registry for residents who already own them. Failure to register is a felony. But Jeff Cohen of member station WNPR reports that officials have no way to identify the new group of criminals and no plans to round them up. Joel Cramer sells guns and he's surrounded by his inventory on the exhibition floor of the Northeast Fishing and Hunting Show in Hartford.JOEL CRAMER: That's a suppressed .44 magnum rifle.UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What is this? 700 - model 700?CRAMER: Yeah, that's a model 700.JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: Cramer specializes in guns like that rifle, machine guns, silencers, and very short shotguns. But one thing he can't sell anymore is what the state calls an assault weapon.CRAMER: I sold assault weapons up until the moment theyNew Law Stubs Toe On A Tough Unknown: Who Owns The Guns?http://whqr.org/post/new-law-stubs-toe-tough-unknown-who-owns-guns
50845 as http://whqr.orgFri, 21 Feb 2014 21:05:00 +0000New Law Stubs Toe On A Tough Unknown: Who Owns The Guns?Jeff CohenAs Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy sped from Hartford to Newtown nearly a year ago, the death toll kept rising. When he arrived on the scene, he found himself in charge — and it fell to him to answer the question: How long should family members have to wait to learn that their loved ones were gone?Malloy decided that he was going to do what he thought was right. Still, standing in front of more than two dozen families gathered in a firehouse, he doubted that it was."I tried to explain, in words less obvious, that everyone who was going to be united with their loved one had been united with their loved one, and that what we had at the school was a crime scene," he says.Saturday marks the anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 children and six educators dead. And a year later, questions still remain about gunman Adam Lanza, who committed suicide that day and worked hard to obscure his motives.Malloy says now that he may never know why Lanza did what heOne Year After Newtown, Still No Answer To 'Why'http://whqr.org/post/one-year-after-newtown-still-no-answer-why
47500 as http://whqr.orgFri, 13 Dec 2013 10:19:00 +0000One Year After Newtown, Still No Answer To 'Why'Jeff CohenBefore the Affordable Care Act was even open for enrollment, Viviana Alvarado was already taking calls from people who wanted to know more.She and about 40 of her colleagues are staffing the phones for Maximus, the company Connecticut has contracted to run its call center.The government contractors running the troubled HealthCare.gov website have been under intense scrutiny in the past month, but those businesses aren't the only ones being paid to rollout Obamacare.In the states that are running their own health care exchanges, practices vary. Oregon, for instance, set up its own call centers; other states, like Connecticut, farm that business out to companies like Maximus."It's a huge opportunity, and it remains so," says Rick Howard, an analyst at Gartner, a technology research firm. "There are millions of millions of folks coming in for insurance coverage. That represents a great opportunity for both commercial carriers and for those contractors who are servicing health care."HowCall Centers Got Big Deals Under Health Law, But How Big? http://whqr.org/post/call-centers-got-big-deals-under-health-law-how-big
45668 as http://whqr.orgTue, 05 Nov 2013 07:58:00 +0000Call Centers Got Big Deals Under Health Law, But How Big? Jeff CohenToday is the day the uninsured can sign up for insurance on Connecticut's new health care exchange under the Affordable Care Act. But technical glitches have hampered the rollout.Kevin Counihan is pretty good at managing expectations. He's the head of Access Health CT, the agency that runs the state's new health insurance marketplace.He's got his eyes on 2016 and beyond. By then, he says, we'll be able to judge whether the health care overhaul has succeeded.So, for him, Oct. 1 may be exciting, but it's not all that telling."I consider this Day One in a three-year enrollment period," Counihan said. "So I think it's sort of a nice metaphor for launching a major social program. But, frankly, in the big picture, it doesn't have a lot of value."And it might be a good idea for him to focus on the long term. Because, in the short term, the agency's website for enrolling — accesshealthct.com — has been glitchy at best, and offline at worst.Shortly after 9:00 a.m., Counihan said the website wasConnecticut's Insurance Website Struggles At Openinghttp://whqr.org/post/connecticuts-insurance-website-struggles-opening
43946 as http://whqr.orgTue, 01 Oct 2013 18:04:00 +0000Connecticut's Insurance Website Struggles At OpeningJeff CohenAll across Connecticut, you can see billboards and TV ads, hear radio spots and get pamphlets about how to get insurance under the new health care law starting Oct. 1.But the state is also using less traditional, and more expensive, ways to get the word out.At state beaches this summer, outreach workers handed out tubes of sunscreen that said, "Get Covered." The state is opening up Apple-like storefronts. And outreach workers have fanned across the state to talk with people attending fairs and shows, like the America's Most Wanted rap concert featuring superstars Lil Wayne and T.I.Papilon Ferreiras, 21, was at the concert. He says he works about 35 hours a week at Taco Bell and would like health insurance."Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't like health insurance?" he says.This is where Emanuela Cebert, an outreach worker, sees an opening. She walks up to Ferreiras, tablet computer in hand."If I had a way for you to get more affordable health insurance or health insurance in general, would youConnecticut Takes Obamacare To The Peoplehttp://whqr.org/post/connecticut-takes-obamacare-people
43022 as http://whqr.orgThu, 12 Sep 2013 21:44:00 +0000Connecticut Takes Obamacare To The People